“It really comes from a place of pain and sorrow but there’s also a lot of humor,” said Salonga who plays Takei’s sister Kei who is striving to save her family from the camp. “We see the Japanese American communities’ resilience despite how things were just going against them.”

“Just because they look like the people that bombed Pearl Harbor, immediately they were labelled possibly traitors, as threats to national security – there’s a line in the show that says a Jap is a Jap,” added Salonga.

“One thing that I love about this show is that all of us are being pulled from here first (points to chest). It’s not this (points to head), it’s really that (points to heart) and at the end of the day, people sing and dance on Broadway because talking is not just enough so everybody breaks out into songs because the emotions are just too big, and it’s amazing and it’s awesome and I love doing it,” Salonga said.